The Yule Ball´s sighs
by boshrocks
Summary: The Yule Ball is a week away. What plot do those Weasleys have this time? And what has it got to do with Harry and Hermione? Nice Slytherins? What is going on? I love any reviewers who are nice. please dont flame me
1. Chapter 1

Harry sighed as he sat in the library.

Hermione sighed as she sat in the library.

Ron sighed as he sat in the library.

Why you may ask. Well, Harry sighed because he is in love with Hermione and hasn't worked up the guts to tell her yet, Hermione sighed because she was in love with Harry and was tired of waiting for him to do anything about it, Ron sighed because he knew that both of them were in love with each other and was sick of seeing them doing sod all about it.

Ron wrote a note to Harry and threw it over.

Oy Harry!

Either you tell Hermione about your thing for her or I will! You have two days to decide and act. You have two days to ask her to the Yule Ball, before I do! Just do it, mate, for all of our sakes.

See you

Ron.

Ron was only going to ask her to the Yule Ball as a friend because she didn't have a date yet. He liked her certainly, but she was like a sister to him and he had never felt anything other than that for her, despite all of Harry's teasing to the contrary. Harry didn't know that though.

He got up and left the library and walked slowly back to the common room. He flopped down on a chair next to Ginny and the Weasley twins came and sat on the arms of the sofa. All the redheads stared into the fire.

"Well, Ron?"

"Phase one complete. Phase two will be up to Harry. I don't think I'll have to take her after all. He doesn't know that I don't think of Hermione like that."

"Really?"

"Yes. It would be as weird for me to take her out as it would be for me to think of you romantically, Ginny. Hermione's like a sister to me, it would be too weird."

"Well said." George said while Ginny shuddered.

"Just the mere thought of you- ew!"

"Exactly, Gin. Harry won't leave her to me. He'll ask her to go before the time limit is up."

"I guess we'll find out in a week."

"Why do you say a week?"

"Because that's the time limit, isn't it?"

"Bugger!"

"Oh god! What have you done?"

"Ronald…how long did you give him?"

"Two days." Ron replied in a small voice.

"WHAT! No way can he work up the courage to ask her out in that little time."

"You've spoilt the whole plan now!"

"There has got to be a way of fixing this mess."

At that moment Harry burst into the portrait hole looking gleeful.

"You asked her didn't you?"

"Nope. She asked me! We're going to the ball together!"

"YES!"

"Finally!"

"Goody! Now I can take her shopping!"

"Yes and we need to go shopping, too, Harry."

Hermione entered, smiling sweetly.

"Thank you for your note Ron. It was most helpful. Who said something about shopping?"

"I did! Tomorrow we're going to Hogsmede!"

"Do you have dates?"

"Yep! Angelina and Katie said they'd go with us." the twins said simultaneously.

"I'm not revealing who my date is until the night." Ginny said with that sneaky glint in her eyes.

"How about you Ron? Or do I need to set you up with someone?"

"Ron doesn't have a date." Harry said.

"Yes I do! I was bluffing earlier. I'm going with Luna."

"Aww!" everyone sighed.

"I'm paying for all of our new dress robes." Harry said, still with that insane grin on his face.

"No, I'm paying for myself and Ginny. If you pay for ours then you'll have to see what we're wearing. We want it to be a surprise for you."

"Are we getting the hair gel out again?"

"God no! The Patil twins are doing all of our hairdo's. The ball is a week away and we're having a meeting in the prefects bathroom at five on the day. We'll get ready then." Hermione went into her usual method of organisation.

"The other houses joining us too then?"

"Oh yes. And Pansy, if that's alright by you?"

"Oh yes, dear Pansy. I haven't spoken to her in days. I should so love to have another chat with her. She's taking Vincent, by the way. He asked her today." Ginny bit her lip, presumably to prevent herself from letting anything else slip.

"Aw, how sweet. He's such a darling. Such a gentleman."

"Gregory is too. Who's he taking again?"

"Padma, of course. They've been dating for, like, ever."

"I thought they had a huge fight and broke up?"

"No. Well, yes. But he got her flowers and everything and it was all sorted out."

"Are you talking about the Slytherins?"

"Yes, Harry, who did you think we were talking about?" and the girls laughed.

The boys looked on as the girls gossiped about their friends and their dates.


	2. Shopping

When the girls were tired of waiting for the boys to appear the next morning they decided that a wake up call was necessary.

"You do the twins and I'll get my boys." Hermione said.

"Fair enough." And Ginny went to shout at her brothers.

Hermione crept into Harry and Ron's dorm. She couldn't help laughing. Ron was sucking his thumb and Harry, although he claimed he didn't snore, was doing so very loudly.

"Boy's wake up!" she said. "If I have to. RON! You're bed's on fire! HARRY! You're…you're…an idiot!"

"Hmm?"

"What do I have to do to get you up? I know." She pointed her wand at Harry's face and water poured out onto it. Not only water but ice cold water.

Surprisingly it didn't work.

What did work was Fred and George running into the room yelling because their hair was on fire. Ginny followed laughing.

"Nice, Gin!"

"I was going to set their pants on fire but that seemed a little mean."

"Put it out! Put it out!" the twins were shouting. Then they turned to each other and started swatting at each other's hair. Harry and Ron jumped up to help. As did Dean, Seamus and Neville.

The girls sank onto Harry's bed sobbing with laughter. Eventually Ginny took pity on them and put the fires out. Then they looked at the boys. They were only wearing their boxers. The boys caught where they were looking and followed the gaze. Then the heads snapped up at exactly the same time. Horrified looks were exchanged.

"BUGGER!" the boys shouted as one.

"Classic!" the girls said. And they laughed again.

"You boys, or should I say men, had better get dressed. We've got a shopping trip organised."

"You know, we should just go by ourselves. We aren't shopping with the boys, they just need to do shopping. We should have just gone, like the other girls have."

"You know what, we should have. Come on Ginny. We'll have to catch up with them."

"Relax honey. They're still in breakfast."

The girls waved goodbye and left the dorm. The boys looked at each other. There was a pause, then it clicked.

"They did that on purpose!" they all said together.

The girls joined their friends at the breakfast. Because there were less people the houses mixed at breakfast during the holidays. Therefore the girls from the other houses were sitting together.

"Guess what we just did!" Ginny said as she sat down.

"Never mind that guess what we just saw!" Hermione said excitedly.

"What?" all the girls said together.

"We just saw Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Dean, Seamus and Neville wearing only their boxers!"

"We set the twins hair on fire!"

"It was so funny. I'll never forget the looks on their faces when they realized what they were wearing."

"Or not wearing! It was so much fun!"

"Next time you do something like that you should call us."

Let me point out just who is sitting at this end of the table. Hermione and Ginny have just joined Angelina, Katie, the Patil twins, Luna, Hannah Abbot, Pansy and Lavender. They were all going shopping together.

They headed out of the front doors as the boys came down the staircase. The twins hurried to open the doors for them.

"Thank you boys, or should I say gentlemen?" Ginny said suppressing a giggle.

"I would have liked to see the performance you boys put in this morning."

"We all would."

"Any chance of a repeat performance?"

The girls laughed at the looks on all the boys faces before heading out into the sunshine.

"I think the sorting hat made a mistake when it sorted you all into Gryffindor. You should be in Slytherin." Pansy said laughing.

"Do we all know what colours we want to wear for this thing?"

"We're going in our new sari's so all we need to get is jewellery."

"And shoes."

"I'm going for a purple dress."

"Purple to match the name right, Lav?"

"How about you Hermione?"

"I think… I don't know what I think. What colour would Harry like on me do you think?"

"Green, like his eyes."

"We'll see. Ginny, what colour are you looking for?"

"My date likes black. I think a black dress would do me well."

"Who is your date?"

Ginny glanced at Pansy.

"You'll see on the night."

When they reached the village they went straight for Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions.

They each chose a few dresses they liked and went to try them on. Even the twins, although they already had their sari's they chose a few for fun.

They didn't notice the boys entering and choosing their dress robes and going into the row of changing cubicles opposite them. Malfoy and his posse followed.

"Ready girls?"

"Ready guys?"

All the doors opened at the same time. Out stepped the boys and out stepped the girls.

Twenty jaws dropped as they saw each other.

Twenty admiring sighs left twenty dropped jaws.

Forty eyes stared.

The girls bolted back into the cubicles. Together they shouted:

"Well, I guess we can't wear these dresses, now that they've seen them."

The boys were thinking the same according to their dress robes.

"Boys! What the hell are you doing here?" Hermione shouted from her cubicle.

"We're shopping for dress robes." Ron shouted back.

"Well, go have breakfast in the pub. You can't see us dressed up until the ball!"

"Let's go guys. Girls can get pretty testy when their shopping."

It won't surprise you to hear that Ron was walking like a penguin when he walked out of the shop with the boys.

"You have to admit, Ron, you did ask for that." Malfoy said laughing.

The girls came out in another dress each.

The twins said that since they already had dresses they would be the stylists.

"Lav, that colour is perfect with your skin and the cut flatters your figure. We have a match. Pansy, blue is so your colour. Crabbe will love it. Angelina you do realize that you and Katie are wearing the same dress?"

"Of course. Our dates will be matching why not match ourselves."

"Good plan. They look good on you. Ginny that black dress is fabulous on you."

"You look so sexy!"

"He'll love it Gin." Pansy said winking at her.

"Hannah, no. That dress doesn't work on you. Go with Padma now and get a batter one. Luna, oh my god! You look good enough to eat. If Ron doesn't eat you by the end of the evening then I am no judge of character."

"What about me? No one's said anything about my dress." Hermione said in a small voice wearing a brown dress that looked rather hideous on her.

"Girls spread out and find a dress that will make Hermione look better than any one of us. she is going with Harry Potter, therefore she must shine."

About an hour later Hermione felt like she had tried on every dress in the shop and the girls still weren't satisfied. Madam Malkin herself stood there giving advice and eventually she took Hermione by the hand and led her into a back room.

"My dear, you need a very special dress. I will make it for you now. Colour?"

"Well I think a dark green would suit me. Plus Harry likes green."

"How about green and white? I can mix them wonderfully. You'll be a fairy princess when I'm through with you."

She called in another lady, who she said was her sister and together they made this perfect dress and gorgeous jewellery to go with it.

Hermione didn't let the girls see this dress or her jewellery and after they had paid she said she was tired from all that trying on.

"But you don't have any shoes."

"For the dress, yes I do. See you later."

"Will Harry like the dress?"

Hermione saw the boys entering the door and then they came over to them.

"Yes, Harry will love it. I'll be very disappointed if he doesn't. You'll have to excuse me from the preparation session. I want to surprise you all."


	3. Snowballs

On Christmas Eve the gang went outside after lunch to have their usual Christmas Eve snowball fight, with a little twist. Battle of the sexes hit Hogwarts out in those grounds as dates fought dates.

"Has anyone realised that we're going backwards?" Ron pointed out.

"It's crossed my mind." Draco snarled as a snowball hit his face.

"Their aims are way better than ours."

"Really, Dean? We hadn't noticed."

Suddenly one of the girls screamed and the boys jumped up from behind their barricade to see who was in trouble and if they could do anything to help. The snowballs hit them one after another, straight down the line.

"That was an inspired touch Hermione."

"Thank you. I told you boys were easy to beat. All you have to do is reach their chivalry. After all, no decent boy ever hits a girl. Plus they've got Harry and he has that hero complex. Put someone in 'trouble' and he has to help them."

"I have NOT got a hero complex!"

"Hate to break it to you but you really do."

Harry then did what can only be described as the stupidest thing he had ever done in his whole magical career; he ran out to challenge Hermione directly and it took him a minute to notice the flock of about fifty snowballs slowly circling above his head, not to mention the fact that all ten of the girls had a snowball in each hand. His face fell and his mind was trying to get him to scamper back to the safety of his barricade, but his body seemed frozen to the spot. It was one of those suspended in time moments. In that moment when his face fell he must have felt that the whole world was falling on his head. This was because the snowballs that were above him decided that they could do far more damage to him if they joined ranks. Whilst the front three rows pelted themselves at him the back rows meshed together to create one big snowball.

He was just wiping the snow out of his eyes as the last little one hit him in the side. He looked up at the girls and they all gave him the identical evil smile and then they threw their snowballs at him.

The other boys now decided that enough was enough and went out to rescue Harry.

They got to him and were helping him up. Unfortunately they forgot about the big one.

"Um, guys?" Pansy said pointing up.

All the boys closed their eyes as they remembered it and their heads drooped as they knew what was coming. As one they dropped to the floor covering their faces, braced for impact.

Hermione was the one in control of it and she let it drop. It was about a foot from them when it stopped. The girls, who were laughing in a huddle behind Hermione, failed to notice her stepping aside and they failed to see the snowball coming at them incredibly quickly. Well, they did see it, but only a second before it hit them.

They screamed and the boys, no doubt wondering why they weren't under a blanket of snow, looked up and saw their dates drenched in what was now a most mushy snowball.

They got back to their feet and all but Harry they rushed to help their partners up.

Harry sidled over to Hermione and gave her a very thankful look.

"Why'd you stop it?"

"I figured you'd suffered enough. It nearly hit you. I couldn't go through with it though. Not to you. Not after all you've been through in the last couple of minutes. Plus, it's you, y'know? I wouldn't be that mean to you."

"Though you could be that mean to your girlfriends."

"They're not you." Hermione put her arm around his shoulders. "I can't be mean to you, old boy." Then she shoved a handful of snow down the back of his shirt.

"Jesus Christ!" he yelled and began dancing around trying to dislodge it and get it to slide out of his shirt. Ron and Neville came to help him, both of them trying not to laugh, for his sake.

He saw the funny side of it, too, once they'd got it out.

Hermione just stood there laughing and then she saw that it was nearly five.

"Girls, come here so I can dry you off. You have a meeting now. Boys I'm going to have to leave you too, I'm afraid, but Flitwick wanted to see me."

"Does this mean we win?" Malfoy said as the girls walked back to the castle. Hermione heard him and turned to look at him.

"I didn't want to have to do this, but…"

She pointed her wand at him and mouthed something.

"This should show you who won!"

Poor Draco was wearing a dress suddenly.

"You bitch, Granger! Get me out of this immediately!"

"Take it off then." She shouted back.

"Miss Granger! Save your voice until tonight! You must stop shouting. Come with me, we need to prepare you for tonight."

"Professor Flitwick, I don't see why I should do this thing."

"You must do it because we cannot have such talent go to waste. I want the students to see you in all your glory. It's about time they saw the real Hermione Granger. Come on now. You have the dress?"

"It's in my dorm."

"Go put it on and wear your cloak over it. It's chilly in the halls. It wouldn't do for you to get a sore throat today."

Meekly Hermione followed him inside.

The other girls were getting ready in Myrtle's bathroom where they knew they wouldn't be disturbed.

"I can't believe Hermione did that to us!"

"Yes and I can't believe she hasn't even shown us her dress yet."

"She wants it to be a surprise."

"Like who your date is, Gin?"

"Exactly. We prefer to have a little bit of mystery to us. Come here Hannah and let me do your make up."

"I can't wait to see what our boys look like."

"I can't wait to see their faces when we walk down those stairs in our outfits."

"I've got Colin to go around taking pictures of us and the ball in general and he is under orders to get good pictures of us all and that we are all to have a printout of them." Ginny said looking pleased that she had though of it. "Now how am I doing your make up Angelina?"

"The same as Katie's please. We are to be identical. Well as identical as we can with our skin tones. Our dates will be identical and so shall we, just to surprise them."

"Fair enough."


	4. Preparation and a surprise

"Professor, I don't see why I should have to perform tonight."

"Hermione, you are doing this because I said so. You have a miraculous voice, and I refuse to see you leaving this school without the others knowing about it. Because they don't, do they? Not even your two closest friends know you can sing so beautifully, do they? You haven't told them. I think you're ashamed of it. Are you?"

"No, sir, I'm not ashamed of it. I don't know why I haven't told them. I suppose it's because I'm afraid they'll laugh at me."

"I told you, you were ashamed of it. I'm sure Mr Potter wouldn't laugh at you. Mr Weasley on the other hand….probably would."

Hermione and Professor Flitwick were walking along the corridors to his classroom with Hermione's dress and shoes in her hands, hidden in plastic sheeting so that it would not be seen by anyone.

"I have a problem. I don't think I can perform in front of all my friends."

"That's just stage fright. It'll pass."

"It isn't too bad at the moment, but I know that in that moment before I have to get up onto the stage it will be terribly huge. There's another technical problem, do I enter with Harry or do they see me first on the stage?"

"If you want to surprise them then I would suggest you appear on the stage. We can light you beautifully. Ah! Here we are. In you go Hermione."

She entered the class room and he followed and set up the gramophone while Hermione conjured a screen to change behind.

"Not yet Hermione. Don't get changed yet. We shall first prepare your voice and then we shall prepare our princess. Come now, begin your songs."

The other girls weren't too far away in Myrtle's bathroom getting spruced up for the ball when they heard the music of the gramophone. It was familiar but they couldn't quite put a name to it. Ginny wanted to go and find out what it was but Katie held her back.

"Later, my little firebrand. I am sure it will be resolved when we appear at that ball looking as fabulous as we will."

Katie put her hands on her shoulders and then Ginny suddenly grabbed Katie's left hand.

"What's this? A ring on the engagement finger? Are you engaged? Angelina, your hand please? Ah, yes. When did my brothers pop the question? At the same time?"

"Yes. On our double date last night. We were so surprised but we thought it would never happen so quickly. We leave school next year and expected it to come shortly afterwards."

"Yes, we never thought it would come while we were still at school. I think we must be the only students in history who became engaged whilst still students."

"Actually you're wrong. James Potter proposed to Lilly Evans before they entered their last year in Hogwarts. Sorry, girls but they beat you." Ginny said, smirking.

"How do you know that?"

"Hermione told me. They were Harry's parents. He the head boy, she the head girl. He the school hunk along with Sirius and she was the quiet serious bookworm. Their romance is the stuff dreams are made of. Someday I'm going to write a book on it, well, either I will or Hermione will."

"Best leave it to Hermione, Gin, I've seen your essays." Luna said laughing.

"Come on, hair needs doing, make up needs to be applied and we have some princesses to make." The Patil twins said together in the same excited tone.

The boys assembled in the entrance hall and they looked very different. Their dress robes were in various colours but in more or less the same range of neatness. At least, no one looked like Ron during their fourth year ball.

Then the party of girls appeared on the stairs. Their dresses were equally colourful and perhaps even more so than the boys. As one the boys knelt before these born-again princesses.

The girls laughed and Harry, who was in the forefront of the group, looked up.

"Ten there should be, but nine there are here, these gorgeous visions before us. My friends have their fair maidens, but I do not. Where is my girl?"

"Hermione has vanished, and none of us know where she is." Ginny said smiling down on him.

The boys slowly got to their feet. The girls descended gracefully down the stairs and each went to their prospective partners. They then curtseyed to them and the boys bowed.

McGonnagal opened the doors to the great hall and called them in. Harry lingered by the staircase.

"You too, Harry, Hermione told me to pass on a message. It's a little riddle. Inside you will find me, where you never expected me to be, prepare yourself for a surprise. Come you can escort me in."

Harry offered his arm and his transfiguration teacher took it and they entered the Great Hall, where the music was just beginning to start.

A voice started to sing. It was a song that was very familiar. It started slow and held the pace of the waltz.

Then into to spotlight stepped the singer of this old Celtic lullaby.

It was Hermione.


	5. The Ball redone

**a/n: ok so no one liked the voldy thing. I only put it in there as a joke anyway. I reworked the chapter for you. don't hate me for the voldy thing. Please review as always.**

It was Hermione. She stood there singing softly and very beautifully.

She stood there in a gorgeous green dress that hung off the shoulder and had a fitted bodice and a white underskirt that peeped out from a slit in the green silk. It had a white lining on the bodice and white gauzy trimming on the sleeves. A jade and clear crystal necklace hung about her neck and she had matching drooping earrings, not to mention a bracelet hanging loosely on her wrist. Her hair was in a half up half down do and it sparkled with glitter.

She looked amazing. Everyone's jaws dropped open.

And she was singing. And they had never heard her singing before. It was quite a startling revelation to them that she could sing and had the guts to sing on the stage. They thought she was too shy to perform something like that.

Hermione looked down at her friends as they crowded round the stage. She smiled, raised the braceleted hand and clicked her fingers. The song changed abruptly.

Now it was more upbeat and everyone recognised it, because it was the theme tune for a very famous muggle television series, 'Friends'. Even though the song was written for a male voice she sang it as though it was made, not only for a female voice, but as though it was written for her voice.

They all laughed and started dancing.

After that she sang Chain of Fools originally sung by Aretha Franklin. This song was an incredibly difficult one and she managed it really well.

Unfortunately the effect was broken when she finished singing and dismounted from the stage. She ruined the perfection by tripping down the steps. Harry and Ron rushed to pick her up.

"Okay, that was embarrassing!" she said laughing.

"We didn't think so!" chorused all her friends and the boys dropped down to one knee before her.

"Boys get up this instant!"

"Maybe we like being in awe of such divinity."

"Harry, I am not divine. I may look it but I'm not. Get up."

"No."

"Get up or I will make you…"

Hermione drew her wand out of her purse. The boys still didn't move. She replaced the wand.

"Girls, get them up."

The girls were unable to move them. The wand came out again.

"You leave me with no choice."

A snowball of enormous magnitude floated in through the doors. It hovered over the group of boys.

"Get up or I will let it drop."

Draco got hurriedly to his feet. Well, he didn't want to ruin his dress robes. Ron followed. He knew better than to mess with Hermione. The twins also stood. Even the infamous Weasley twins weren't a match for Hermione when she was armed with a big snowball. Vincent and Gregory as usual followed Draco's lead and rose. Neville cast one terrified glance at the snowball and then at Hermione's wand before getting up. Or at least he would have done had he not tripped up on his cloak and fallen flat on his face. Dean and Seamus pulled him up as they also rose.

Only Harry stayed on the ground. Hermione looked at him and then at the snowball. Shutting her eyes she waved her wand.

Everyone flinched waiting for the impact…

But it didn't come.

Instead the snowball zoomed back out of the hall.

Upon seeing this Harry reached forward and took her hand and kissed it before he got gingerly to his feet.

By the end of the night they were all exhausted and ready to go to bed but not willing to leave the celebrations.

Hermione sat on Harry's lap by one of the tables. She was snuggled in to him and looked like she was about to nod off. He looked similarly tired, but it has to be said that he looked very content sitting there.

In fact their position was being copied by all their friends who sat nearby.

Ron had actually fallen asleep with Luna in his lap.

The ball ended and everyone got up to leave, but they left Ron there.

"Shall we wake him up?" Hermione asked the group at large.

"Not before Colin takes a picture of him. Colin! One more picture." Ginny pointed to her brother and Colin snapped the picture.

"How do we wake him?"

Here followed a general array of awakening techniques. For e.g. Fred and George started shouting at him to wake him up. Hermione tried prodding him, and when that failed she kicked him.

He didn't even stir when Draco poured a jug of icy cold water over him.

Eventually Luna sat on his lap heavily and snogged him. Surprisingly this worked and he woke in a rush and started flailing his arms around in surprise.

He gazed around in total surprise at the laughter that appeared to be coming from all sides.

"I know who wears the trousers in this relationship." Ginny said giggling.

"Who's that, then?" Pansy asked, and she stopped chuckling abruptly.

"Luna of course!"

"I wear trousers." Ron said bemusedly.

Everyone laughed again.

"Did you two give him those pills again?" Harry accused the twins.

Pause. The twins looked incredibly guilty.

"Harry wears trousers too."

"Get him upstairs, Harry." Hermione hissed at Harry.

Harry pecked her on the lips before hauling Ron up from his seat and escorting him out of the hall.

"He wears trousers too!"


End file.
